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Friday, April 20, 2012

Lovin' Myeongdong in Seoul, Korea

In every country, there is a particular district that I have grown fond of. There's Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong and Raffles City in Singapore. As a result, I would tend to book hotels within these areas as I find myself most comfortable and at ease when staying in these places. Both districts are considered highly commercial areas as they are filled with lots of shops and restaurants making it so convenient for Paul and I to eat, shop and walk around at any given time of the day.

After all, being in a foreign land, it's important to still feel safe to be able to fully enjoy and maximize the trip. As we got to our hotel in Korea, I immediately fell in love with Myeongdong. I love the fact that the entire place is filled with retail shops, food establishments and a lot more. There are a number of malls present such as the Lotte Young Plaza, Migliore and the huge high-end department store called Shinsegae.

Just around our hotel, there are a lot of beauty shops which were perfect for all the girls in our group. The ladies hoarded on make up, BB creams and face masks while little Lauren enjoyed buying bottles of nail polishes. What makes these beauty shops really attractive is that sales ladies would wave free gifts to entice you to enter their shop. The fun doesn't stop there as they would willingly offer discounts and more gifts when you purchase items from them.

I visited Nature Republic after hearing raves about it from my colleague ML. After buying two bottles of BB creams (which were on a buy-one-take-one promo, by the way) and a pot of blush, I got more facial masks and a special discount too! The prices here are really reasonable making you think twice about purchasing these items here in Manila knowing exactly how much they just cost in Seoul.

When it comes to food, there are numerous choices available in busy Myeongdong. Restaurants offering international and local fares are there. Same goes for a number of food stalls selling all sorts of street snacks. Normally, I wouldn't even dare buy street food for fear of catching a nasty stomach flu or the worst case of diarrhea on a trip. However, in Seoul, the sanitation seems to be notches better thus we tried a couple of snacks and were really happy with it.

We spotted a lady making caramel cookies. These cookies are thin, crisp and have unique designs stamped at the center.

Look how happy Paul was as he got his own piece of cookie!

One chilly night, we spotted a stall selling sausages on stick. Another variation was hotdog/sausage covered with fries. Deadly but delicious!

Every night as we walk back to our hotel, we would try various street foods available. From crunchy squid crackers to sticky Korean candies and a lot more! We also love the Dunkin Donut branch near our hotel as the donuts are really chewy, yummy and have more choices in Seoul. I personally love the Coffee Chewsty Donut.

When it comes to shopping, Myeongdong has a number of foreign outlets that you can choose from! My favorite brand Uniqlo, for instance, has two outlets within the vicinity of my hotel. There's also H&M, Mango, Gap, Forever 21 and Zara nearby. Korean brands such as SPAO and the ABC Mart can also be found here too. This is truly a shopper haven.

My heart belongs to Myeongdong in Seoul and I can't wait to go back. ♥

3 comments:

hi fran :) thanks for posting this. am super looking forward to our may korea trip already- and will be staying in myeongdong too. i just have 1 question- i've read that regular cellphones won't work in korea? what did you do? did you rent their handsets? i'm really concerned about being able to receive text messages on my ph number... :)

@beeinthekitchen: yes sadly most phones wont work in Korea. in our group only those with iPhones and HTC can access their roaming while the rest of us without smart phones remain incommunicado for the entire duration of our stay. check with your telco provider. Otherwise, I saw a counter renting out phones in the airport. enjoy your trip!